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Rescued POW said to be 'not emotionally ready' for homecoming

The row over the prisoner swap deal that secured the release by the Taliban of US soldier Bowe Bergdahl is turning increasingly ugly. Amid claims the prisoner of war is a deserter who didn't deserve to be rescued, the FBI has now confirmed its investigating death threats made against his family. Last week a celebration in his hometown in Idaho had to be cancelled over security concerns.

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ELEANOR HALL: In the United States, the row over the prisoner swap deal that secured the release by the Taliban of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl is turning increasingly ugly.

The FBI has now confirmed it's investigating death threats made against his family, as allegations continue that the former prisoner is a deserter who didn't deserve to be rescued.

Last week a celebration in his hometown in Idaho had to be cancelled because of security concerns.

The young soldier himself remains oblivious of the firestorm, as he remains in a military hospital in Germany without access to any news media.

Nick Grimm has our report.

NICK GRIMM: Devout Calvinists, living what some might describe an alternative lifestyle, Bowe Bergdahl's parents do not fit the stereotype of the American military family.

They home-schooled their children and say they instilled in them a strong sense of morality and ethics. On their farm in Idaho, Bowe Bergdahl grew into a young man with a voracious appetite for reading with romantic notions about adventure and helping others.

BOB BERGDAHL: No family in the United States understands the detainee issue like ours.

NICK GRIMM: As his son's captivity stretched to years, Bob Bergdahl grew frustrated with the US military's efforts to secure his release.

He grew a flowing beard, learned the language of his son's Afghan captors, Pashtu, and communicated directly with them via YouTube.

BOB BERGDAHL: Our son is being exploited. It's past time for Bowe and the others to come home.

NICK GRIMM: The Bergdahl family is now discovering that large numbers of Americans do not share their joy at their son's release.

Death threats have been made. The FBI says it is taking them seriously.

Residents and local businesses in his hometown of Hailey, Idaho report receiving angry and abusive phone calls and emails.

In the days that have followed news of Bowe Bergdahl's release, there have been accusations he's a deserter. Some say - worse still - a traitor to his country for abandoning his post and walking off into the Afghan countryside five years ago.

JACK KEANE: Everyone in the administration certainly knows that he deserted his post, that's a fact.

NICK GRIMM: In the United States calls for him to now face military punishment, are growing louder.

Former US Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane has told Fox News that Bowe Bergdahl has a lot of explaining to do.

JACK KEANE: Frankly we want this soldier to come home, be interrogated by an expert and let's get all the facts on the table, and if it drives us to a court-martial, so be it.

Georgia Republican, Senator Saxby Chambliss.

SAXBY CHAMBLISS: I think there's going to be a lot of things that Bergdahl tells the army and the medical folks that he's talking to now that Bob's gonna be very difficult to validate but that's not to say they're not absolutely true.

But we weren't there, we have nobody who was on the inside, so we don't know exactly what happened in his life over the last several years.

NICK GRIMM: Certainly questions remain about why Bowe Bergdahl left his unit in Afghan province of Paktika and how he came to fall into the hands of the Taliban.

It's been revealed that he had left his post before, once at a training facility in the US and again in Afghanistan, but on both occasions he had returned to his duties.

It's also emerged that his unit was beset with discipline and security problems and was under-manned for the task it had been set confronting a well-organised and aggressive foe.

And there are conflicting accounts too of Bergdahl's behaviour. Some characterise him as stand-offish, brooding and eccentric, others say he was a willing and effective soldier, albeit often more interested in engaging in humanitarian activities.

His disappearance is still a mystery to his army comrades like Gerald Sutton.

GERALD SUTTON: Personally I would like to be able to talk to the guy and ask him why he did this because that's the ultimate question that everybody's been asking, or everybody should be asking. Let's get down to the matter.

NICK GRIMM: Photos of Private Bergdahl taken in Afghanistan before his disappearance show a young soldier casually leaning on his dug-out, a pipe jutting from the corner of his mouth, a scarf wrapped around his neck.

Standing there in the desert he could almost be styling himself as a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia.

Reports that he witnessed an Afghan child run over by a US armoured vehicle are vehemently denied by other members of his unit.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Should we see that our GIs who are taken hostage are returned? Absolutely.

NICK GRIMM: As the controversy rages in the US, Democrats continue to defend the prisoner swap that secured his release.

Speaking on the us TV program Face The Nation, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: The army will look at this very carefully. They will make judgements, they will evaluate it and if he needs to be tried in a military court, he will be.

NICK GRIMM: Some question about Bowe Bergdahl are beginning to be met with answers.

Emerging from the military hospital in Germany where he was taken for medical treatment, he's said to be in a good physical condition, apart from some skin and gum problems.

But doctors say he is not yet emotionally ready to go home, where he'll be reunited with his family and face the media onslaught.

It's said he endured harsh treatment while a prisoner of the Taliban; kept in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks on end as punishment for attempting to escape.

A private when he was captured by the Taliban, its also said Bowe Bergdahl does not like being addressed as sergeant Bergdahl, saying he hasn't earned the rank awarded to him by the long-standing US military convention to promote prisoners of war in accordance with their time in captivity.